Venom vs Predator
by SNOWIEproductions
Summary: CHAPTER 12 IS UP! This is it, gang. The end is nigh. Stick around for the exciting conclusion to my first fanfic! Note:story has been changed to 'T' because of slightly gritier violence. Sorry!
1. Prologue

V vs P

VENOM VERSUS PREDATOR

By Snowie the Almighty

Prologue

CENTRAL PARK, 11:26pm, Friday

One small area of tranquillity, one tiny spot of calm in an otherwise busy city, Central Park was the only part of the Big Apple that wasn't constantly being bitten. It remained a spot of proof that peace can be found in noise, especially at night.

Not tonight, however.

A cold wind blew through the trees, an unexpected change in an otherwise warm air. The summer had so far been the hottest in a while, so what was this sudden chill?

A low hum, a slight thud and then the breeze vanished, all trace of its existence gone. Then it showed itself.

A wave of electricity passed over mid air, beginning four feet off the ground and continuing to rise up and up, behind it, a metal surface appearing. Soon, a huge ship was semi-visible, half solid, half ghost.

The craft was of an unusual construction. It was a smooth-surfaced ship, its blue-silver sides shining in the faint moonlight. Several jet engines lined the sides, and no windows seemed to be present.

Strange markings lined the body of the vehicle, all very technical, like digital information but…almost tribal. A dialect.

The silence was broken again by a brief roar, as quick as a door being slammed, as a door…opened. A mouth in the side of the craft opened, yawned with a mechanical creak and dropped to the ground, its heavy mass not even speaking a whisper.

And in the doorway, it stood, looking out upon its new home. Its new hunting ground.

The hunt was about to begin.


	2. Chapter 1:A day in the life of

Chapter One

THE DAILY BUGLE OFFICES, 2:56pm, Saturday

Peter Parker stared down at the pile of paperwork littering his desk, a coat of snow on the brown, wooden surface. He had spent all morning as Spider-man, swinging through buildings, fighting crime.

This was a twist.

_How 'bout that_, thought Peter, a smile spreading across his face, _I've gone from halting bank robberies and beating up bad guys to filling out paperwork on what I was doing. Yippee. Just to give in some photos! I bet even Nick Fury doesn't have **this** many forms to sign!_

Recently, J. Jonah Jameson, the 'generous' publisher of The Daily Bugle, had started giving something back to his loyal workers. Unfortunately, what he **was** giving was large amounts of official documents to fill out. He was in his 'professional' stage, making sure everything was done by the book; **his** book.

The Bugle had been getting a loss in readers ever since Norman Osborn had run the paper; people were sick of 'Bounty on Spider-man's Head' this, and 'Reward for Spider-man's Capture' that. Jameson just wanted to be sure all that nonsense had gone so that people would come back to New York's 'finest paper'.

Then he would start printing his own spider-bashings again. Just how his paper **should** be run.

There was that, and the fact that the Bugle offices had recently been attacked by the madman Venom.

Eddie Brock had, not long ago, rejoined with his symbiotic other and had decided to pay a visit to all the people he had declared vengeance on. Jameson was one of those people. After all, when your name had been linked with 'maniac' and 'unbalanced' on the front pages of best-selling newspapers, how are you expected to feel?

Luckily, Jonah managed to leave unharmed but cautious. So, getting more attention on his paper was the only thing to keep his mind off the ordeal.

Peter, however, couldn't think about anything else. One of Spider-man's deadliest enemies had returned, and he had only just got rid of the Green Goblin **and** an evil Spider-woman! All Peter wanted to do was settle down with his wife and his Aunt May, but even that seemed like it would never happen.

Peter finished putting his signature on the forty fifth and final paper and made his way toward Betty Brant's desk, when he was stopped by Ben Urich, who seemed to be in a hurry to show him something. He looked panicked, something the calm and collective reporter never expressed.

"Peter, TVs. NOW!" he said, grabbing the photographer by the shirt and pulling him towards the several screens lined up against the walls. Many screens showed the usual news drivel about celebrities and who they went to bed with **this** weekend, or interviews with Johnny Storm about who made the Human Torch feel hot, but one screen caught Peter's eye immediately.

Empire One News was broadcasting live pictures from somewhere downtown. In the camera's view was what seemed to be a recently demolished building, but on closer inspection, Peter could see it was still being demolished; but not by bulldozers and cranes.

Out of the dust clouds ran the Rhino, all muscle, no brains. His armour was all dirty from the hard task of slamming into walls, but he showed no signs of resting.

_Whatever he's up to, _Peter thought, _someone's gonna need to stop him._

He looked around as though expecting to see Captain America or Wolverine pop out from behind a skyscraper, and then thought to himself _Yeah, like **that's**__gonna happen. Time to don the tights…_

Sneaking toward the bathroom, Peter realized that this was going to be one of those days.

SOMEWHERE NEAR THE EAST RIVER, 3:02pm

Venom's skins crawled. Something wasn't right.

They sat there in Eddie Brocks motel room, all three of them; Eddie, the symbiote and his offspring. It felt good to have the family together again, even if it meant Cletus Kasady missing out on some Carnage-based prison time. Now he was all alone in his cell, and Venom was whole again.

But this made him more aware of change, and the symbiotes had noticed a big change, not just in New York, but in the galaxy. Something unwelcome had arrived in the city last night, and it was making Venom crazy. It hadn't changed anything or interacted with anyone, but that was what worried them. It was waiting for something.

Venom didn't want to give it a chance at anything.

"We don't need another weirdo in this city!"


	3. Chapter 2:Tall, dark and horny

Chapter Two

It didn't take long for Spider-man to find where Rhino was-it may have been New York City, but that didn't mean a big cloud of dust went unnoticed.

Landing on a rooftop a block away, he took a moment to come up with a plan of attack.

_There's definitely gonna be some debris, so I can do the whole 'Rhino charge and smash' thing or throw some at him, but from the news pictures, there are several people in the area, mainly people who have had to flee the building, so I'll have to be-_

Suddenly, his spider-sense buzzed like a bee in a bonnet and, instinctively, he whipped round to where the 'danger' was coming from.

An apartment rooftop, three buildings away from the one he was stood on. Nothing unusual, but something about it was giving him a spider-headache. But what, there was nothing there? Although…

_No, just the heat. Making me feel a bit woozy._ One corner of the roof seemed to be blurred or misty. It was barely noticeable, but it still caught Spidey's eye.

_Never mind. Back to business._

It didn't take long to find Rhino (again), as a roaring maniac as big as the Hulk, in a Rhino costume, isn't hard to spot. By now, almost all of whatever building it was, wasn't. He was looking through the wreckage and still standing rooms, frustration and anger covering his face.

He picked up a huge lump o' concrete and tossed it out of his way, without noticing the several people in its path. People fled from the soon-to-be landing site, except a young woman who just stared at the boulder in terror, unable to move. A split second before it would collide with her and break her bones like breakin' bones, there was a flash of red/blue that knocked into her instead. Safe.

"You okay?" Spidey asked the woman, now trembling for a different reason. "You can stop shaking, you're safe now."

Her voice trembled as much as she did. "He-he's c-coming! H-he's…"

Spider-man's head went haywire as the Rhino took a charged run in his direction. Jumping to the side with the lady in his arms, Spidey managed to dodge the bumbling buffoon's attack, landing him and his 'passenger' out of harm's way, and the Rhino's head into the nearest pile of rubble. _As usual_, Spidey thought.

As the grey-skinned goof struggled to pull his horn from out of the mess, our hero placed the woman gently on the ground and began to advance. To mock. And laugh.

"So, still falling for that one despite the fact that I've used the same technique **every single time** we fight! I mean, could you **have** less brain cells?" Normally, Peter used humor to distract himself from the danger but, this time, he genuinely found Rhino's repetitive nature just a tad amusing.

"Shut up, bug! I ain't got time f'r **you**! I've gotta find Pavlov!" Rhino was getting more infuriated the more he struggled. Slowly but surely, he was getting free. As usual.

"No, you've gotta find help, and not for getting free either. What you **have** got time for is education, and boy do you need it. Knowledge makes the man, that's what I always say! And there's a lot of learning to be done in jail."

Suddenly, Rhino tore his head away from the rubble. He glared at the webslinger, a sinister grin spreading across his face. "Learn this!"

Spider-sense seemed a pointless concept at that moment as the Rhino got to Spidey before he could react. Using his bulk as a weapon, he slammed into the webbed-wonder with the speed of a giant, Rhino-shaped super villain charging into a blue and red bug-man. Spider-man went flying across the debris piles, landing in the crowd and knocking over a few spectators in the process. _Great_, thought Peter, _**this** is the part that will make the headlines!_

Getting to his feet, it hit him. _If I'm in the crowd, and_ _Rhino's aiming for me, doesn't that mean-_

Rhino's massive frame came running into sight from the other side of the mounds of rubble. Spidey needed to act fast. Moving to the front of the crowd, he launched one end of a web net to stick to the wall to the side of the crowd. It was a thick net, enough to stop a car at over seventy, but with an elastic framework. Then, pushing away from the wall, he stretched the net to stick to the wall of the opposite building, then to somewhere just past the Rhino. Unable to stop, the heavy hit man collided with the first part of the net. He rebounded off of it, heading into the second stretched section of the net with the first still stuck to him.

Not long after a nudge into the third, the Rhino realized he was trapped.

"Oh…bummer." He hung his head, disappointment filling his sorry face. Then he broke the bonds.

Throwing the webbing from himself, he swung one last fist in Spider-man's direction, knocking the webslinger into the wall, before running off toward wherever a Rhino in New York lives.

Spidey brushed the dust from his shoulders, turned to the crowd, and said "Ta-da!"

Then he heard the usual; NYPD sirens were sounding a block or two away, signaling that, finally, one of the officers had racked up the courage to take on an actual super villain.

"Love to stay and chat", Spider-man announced to his 'audience', "but I'm sure you can tell the cops about how **I** smashed up the building with my partner, Rhino. Hey, add something to the story if you want, like how I, together with Doc Ock and Roger Rabbit, planned to give cigarettes to school kids. You know, the usual!"

Spidey leaped onto the nearest rooftop, shot a webline in the direction of Times Square, and swung off into the concrete jungle.

Meanwhile, on the rooftop three buildings away from Rhino's wreckage, It sat and judged the show he had just seen performed. The reflexes of both fighters, the damage done, to damage avoided, all was important to Its study.

Deciding on the subject, the creature began to form a new study, one to follow the smaller, agile competitor.

This was far from the usual. This was the beginning of something new.


	4. Chapter 3:Why that dress?

CHAPTER 3

THE PARKER APARTMENT, 5:08pm

"Everything's getting me down about it, "moaned Peter, clearly in a mood. "Each time it interferes with my job or my friends, but mainly you."

Mary Jane moved over to him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "But, think about it this way; at least it's the same people. That means you'll always know how to deal with them easily." She went back into the bedroom and began to rummage through the wardrobe.

"But In the end, it doesn't matter who it **is**, it's whose lives are at stake. God, why do super-powered maniacs have to be around, anyway! I mean, once they've had their butt kicked by a hero, why do they try to get past them again?"

"Because, like the heroes, they never give up", MJ's voice called from the bedroom. "If they did, they wouldn't be able to live with themselves, like you would if someone died when you were trying to save them. They would be a destroyed form, nothing left to hope for. So, they keep fighting back."

"Gwen", Peter whispered, "I didn't let her death stop me; I went for revenge. I became a destroyed form, but I recovered. Oh, Gwen…"

"What did you say, Pete?" MJ called.

"Oh, nothing, nothing. Just mumbling, s'all."

"Good, because I need to know what you think about this outfit". She entered the room again. This time she had changed from her jeans and t-shirt, and was wearing a skin-tight green dress that went from her under arms to just above her knees, and her favourite kind of shoes; stilettos with straps. Peter thought she looked gorgeous, but something hit him that added a criticism to the comments list.

"You look great and everything, but, erm…don't you think it's a little revealing. I mean, that's great and all, but, er…"

"Hey, it's my first wrap party, and I wanna look fantastic, get some publicity, y'know. But don't worry; I know who my man is!"

Peter smiled. **This** was why he loved Mary Jane so much. _She only appeared as a guest star in one episode of a crummy soap opera and she thinks that she's queen of the show. Well, she is to me. She's gonna make it soon. Who knows, she might attract a movie casting director with that dress!_

"You look great."

"Thanks, but what are you going to wear? The party's in three hours so I need to know now."

"I was thinking some Speedos or something like that, you know, something skin-tight and revealing!" He smirked and winked at MJ. She beamed back at him with that award-winning smile.

"I wish! Then again, you can't say anything, your Spidey costume is spandex!" she said as she went back into the bedroom to change back.

A small frown covered Peter's face. "It is so not spandex!"

MJ poked her head around the door and grinned at him. "Whatever!"

THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING, 7:43pm

It had proved to be a tough search. Venom had been searching the city for hours now and they could find no trace of the 'Intruder'. Maybe their spider-sense wasn't working correctly.

"All we ask is to eat the brains of an unwelcome guest and then we can't find him. Bummer!"

From the top of the Empire State building, they could see everything and everyone. Human, circle-shaped blips were walking around below, and the square ones were cars. So why were they finding it so hard to find a squiggly blob wandering around, devouring the round ones and smashing the square ones?

"Aliens don't stand out like they used to! We give in!"

As Venom prepared to jump, his spider-sense exploded into his head and he looked towards the 'hot spot'. Sure enough, their sense was right; there on one of the lower rooftops (then again, all rooftops are lower than the ES rooftop) they could see a semi-visible humanoid shape, jumping with ease onto the next building.

"Bingo," Venom said to themselves. They launched off the ledge they was perched on and shot a webline from their wrist to attach to a nearby building, all the while keeping their eyes on the creature and where it was headed. It stopped, leaving Venom surprised at the location it had ceased at. "Why the hell would it go there?"

Many people were entering the building, all in fancy dresses and suits. Eddie recognised some from the TV. It seemed to be some kind of party for a crummy soap opera…


	5. Chapter 4:I've been to a marvelous party

CHAPTER 4

SOME CRUMMY SOAP OPERA'S WRAP PARTY, 8:02pm

"It's starting to annoy me now," said Peter, turning to guys looking at his 'doll' and glaring at them 'till they looked away, "every single guy at this party keeps looking at your, your…you!"

"Don't worry, I want them to look; one might be a casting director, remember? I've already been offered a part in some crappy hero flick; The Amazing Lobster-man, or something like that. Besides, you're my man, I'm your girl; I won't forget!"

MJ's words only comforted Peter a little. For some reason, his spider-sense was tingling slightly as if there was a present danger but not an immediate danger. _It's probably just the security guards guns or that guy's deodorant_, thought Peter. _But I can't help but wonder…Nah! Attacks on parties are usually on famous people; hardly anyone even watches this soap anyway. Note to self: do not mention that last part to MJ. She'll kill me!_

Mary Jane turned to Peter and smiled that smile. "You look cool", she said to her hubby. "It's a shame that you're wearing tights under that tux!"

"Keep it down, people might hear and think I'm wearing suspenders and a corset, too!" MJ giggled and gave Peter a quick kiss. He wasn't really paying attention, he was still thinking about the 'possible danger', but MJ didn't notice. She was too excited.

"Anyway", she said, "gotta mingle!" And off she went, her green dress a beacon in a sea of black and blue suits.

"Great, now I've got to stand here for a few hours, looking at talent less actors, waiting for MJ to get back", Peter murmured to himself. "Where's a bad guy when you need one?"

MEANWHILE

Venom looked down upon the crowd comprised of B list celebrities and daytime TV presenters and wondered how an alien life form could hide among them. Sure, they weren't pretty themselves, with their toupees and their pumped up pouty lips and plastic breasts, but the alien was at least seven foot tall and possibly covered in armour.

The symbiote and its sidekick knew the creature was still there; their spider-sense was a buzzin'. But **where**…

Then Eddie spotted her; Mary Jane Parker was in the crowd wearing the tightest little dress. It showed off her spectacular figure, er…spectacularly, from her slender curves to her heaving bosom…sorry, I got lost there! And so did Venom. They stared at her in deep thought.

"I can get Parker's help in finding this thing. MJ's here so he must be too. All I need to do is get his attention and let him change into Spider-man…but how?"

Then it hit him; good ol' fashioned kidnap.

BACK WE GO…

Mary Jane was sick of putting on a smile. Tedious story after tedious story, the cast were so dull that she was glad that she had not signed up to be a recurring character. But, trying not to be rude, she listened and nodded and laughed and drank, the latter more than the formers. She only wished something interesting would happen.

Something interesting was about to happen and MJ would wish she hadn't wished for the wish to…whatever.

She moved over to the wall and was about to lean against it when several black tentacles appeared out of thin air and ensnared her, completely wrapping around her upper body in less than a second. They tightened quickly, knocking the breath out of her, leaving just enough for a scream.

Everyone in the room turned around to see Mary Jane being lifted from the ground and the veil camaflaging the rest of the attacker's body begin to lift. The chameleonic form changed to its usual black colour and everyone could see that the tentacles were the symbiotic skin of Venom, each of the tendrils protruding from Its back.

The tentacles now extended, coiling around MJ's hips and legs, completely trapping her. Increased danger, increased attention; just what Venom wanted.

Mary Jane wriggled and struggled to stop the tendrils from wrapping around her completely, but it made no difference; all that happened was that her shoes fell off. _Why does that always happen?_ thought MJ.

Peter almost jumped at Venom when he saw what he was doing, but then he realised that the room was full of people. _If I act all heroic and get into a fight with Venom, people may recognise the fighting style I use as Spider-man's. What do I do!_

MJ was now encased in a living cocoon, from her ankles up to her shoulders. Venom brought her closer to their face. "If you want to see this pretty little girly-girl again, you will all do your best to get Spider-man here and meet me on the rooftop within the next five minutes. Or-"Venom wrapped several thick tentacles around MJ's shoulders and neck and began to constrict, choking her menacingly, "-the babe dies!"

Venom bounded up the wall carrying the terrified Mary Jane in the symbiote's wriggly grasp. They left through the skylight and out of the sight of the partygoers.

Peter ran to the restrooms. De ja vu.

THE ROOFTOP, 8:12 pm

It seemed unusual for someone to be shivering on such a warm a night as that night. But MJ was shivering for a complete different reason.

Still bound by Venom's tendrils, she was shaking with pure fright; Venom was the first one of Spider-man's enemies to attack MJ to get his attention. Ever since the two first met, MJ still feared for the day that Venom would use her to get to Peter again.

That day was today.

Venom turned to his prisoner. "Well my dear, looks like your man's not gonna show up." A sinister grin spread across Its large, toothy mouth, all large and pointy. "Maybe we should force him to hurry!"

Venom loosened the tentacle around her mouth and repositioned it around her neck, tightening it again. The guys big, long tongue extended from his mouth and licked Mary Jane's cheek. She whimpered in fear as the pink gooey whatsit covered her mush in saliva.

"Scream for me…"

"No need" a voice cut in. Venom spun around to see Spidey stood there, fists clenched and ready to beat the crap out of his fearsome foe. "Besides, hasn't another guy used that line?"

"Probably a mutant."

"Oh. Well, time to fight methinks. You should never kiss on a first date, by the way; it's not good for the relationship. Now let go of MJ before I beat the crap outta ya with these clenched fists o' mine!"

"Not until I get what I'm after, meat!"

"Which is?"

Venom looked past Spidey at something and their face lit up. "That" he said.

Spidey spun around to see a tall, armour-clad figure behind him. It had dreadlock-like hairs coming down from its wide head and its huge, muscular body was only just visible behind layers of metal netting and chest plates. A huge double blade suddenly extended from its right wrist and shined in the moonlight.

It raised them high and let out an awesome roar, the likes of which New York City had never heard before.

Spider-man stared in awe. "Holy…"

"…crap" Venom finished.

The alien's head jumped down to look at its prey. The hunter had arrived.

"Er, little help?" whispered MJ.


	6. Chapter 5:Rooftop encounter

CHAPTER 5

"What the hell is **that**?" Spider-man asked, looking at the armoured creature that stood before him. "And why is its head so big?"

"This is why we needed to speak with you." said Venom, pointing to the creature. "**This** has been giving me a huge headache, it's bad news. It's been hanging around town since last night; we felt its presence."

"Venom, I am your father!"

"This is no time for jokes, bug brain!"

"Agreed. My spider-sense warned me about something, I sensed it earlier today. I think it's been following me."

Then, the creature raised its left arm by ninety degrees, opened up a panel on its gauntlet and began to type something onto a small interactive screen. Strange markings covered the black surface as a red beam of light shot from its helmet and it scanned the area. It then closed the panel and stared at Venom.

There was a pause before Spider-man had the balls to say something to it. "Er, hi. Look, I don't know if you can understand me, but I think you need to go back home to your other Martian friends. They love you for who you are. I, to be honest for a second here, think you look like something that** he** spat out!" He pointed to Venom, who growled softly.

The alien continued to stare at Venom, causing the symbiote half of the team to shiver sharply with shock. _Wha? _thought Spidey, looking at Venom. _He's scared? Venom's never scared! Have they met before?_

The creature made a croak-like noise-and charged straight for Spider-man, knocking him out of its way. It ran toward Venom, used its blades to slice off some symbiote and placed it in a compartment of its belt.

Venom keeled over, clutching Eddie's now bleeding arm in pain. The alien creature stood upright once more and noticed MJ, still tied up in Venom's tentacles. The creature knelt down to look at her, its face inches from her own. The terror she was already experiencing rose to the next level as the creature held her chin and examined her face. The red beam extended from its helmet again, scanning Mary Jane's face with interest.

"Please, d-don't hurt m-me…"she said as the creature stopped the scan and purred at her.

"Get the hell away from her, you alien slime ball!" The alien turned round to see Spider-man leaping it, fists, yet again, clenched.

The creature simply moved and left the webbed wonder to smack into the wall behind MJ. As he began to get up, it grabbed his throat and held him at least two feet from the ground. Its grip was powerful; Spidey couldn't breath. Whatever it was, it either had super strength or full body power.

Suddenly, it yanked Spidey's head toward its own and spoke in a hoarse, croaky voice like fingernails down a chalkboard.

"Rarrrrrrrr…bug brain…."

Promptly throwing Spider-man off the building, the creature then leapt to the next rooftop and out of sight, before Eddie could fully recover.

8:30pm

Spider-man's eyes opened. He could see the sky, stars a shinin', and could feel a hard surface beneath him. Then he remembered.

He shot up, standing within the second and scanned the area. It was the alleyway behind the party venue. _Ok, the thingy tossed me off the building and Venom was-oh god, MJ!_

Then he heard a faint, light snoring noise from around the corner. He recognised that snore; he woke up to it every morning. He sped around the building to find, cocooned yet again, but this time in webs, a sleeping MJ. Held above the ground in the centre of a huge spider's web, her head poked out from a mass of fluid and, beneath her still bare feet, was a message spelt out in webbing.

It read:

Thought you might want your girly back. She was a nice hostage though; think I might kidnap her again some time. She musta fainted or something; she was asleep when I found her.

Yours hatingly, Venom

P.s: She's got nice boobs.

_Bastard_, thought Spidey, but still glad to have MJ back. "I better get her back home; I can leave my tux here. Her shoes can stay lost though; they're the third pair this month. How does she keep losing them?"

He looped another strand around her waist, tying her to his back, and swung off, trying his hardest not to wake her.

THE CRAFT, CENTRAL PARK, SOME TIME LATER.

The test was complete; the symbiotic life form had indeed been one of a race that the creature had encountered previously. It placed the sample back into a containment bubble and moved to the head of the table.

Along it sat the Elders; the clan's most respected hunters and killers. They were here to see what their apprentice had in mind.

Several large, dome-shaped screens covered the wall at the head of the table, each displaying a readout of flight stats or DNA testing of symbiotic life forms. The main screen, however, was blank. It was a big screen, almost as tall as the aliens themselves, and the creature was stood beside it.

It looked out at its 'crowd' and gave a slight growl. It then pressed a button next to the screen and waited.

A second later, several readouts appeared on the great monitor before it began to show pictures and scans taken from the scene that was visited; there was a human girl, then a combination creature that contained traces of symbiote DNA structure, and then there was the target: the Spider-man.


	7. Chapter 6:Morning after the night before

CHAPTER 6

PARKER APARTMENT, 8:36am, Saturday

Mary Jane was still asleep when Peter came downstairs that morning. He had laid her on the couch and wrapped a duvet around her when they returned last night after the rooftop encounter with Venom and the strange, new species.

She had slept like a log. Peter, however, had drifted off whilst looking for something to clean webbing stains from a green dress, but had woken up on the ceiling. This only happened when Peter's mind was troubled.

And boy was he troubled.

_When something scares someone like Venom, should I be scared to? I mean, Carnage worried Venom when **he** first showed up, but we've both found ways to deal with him. But this new thingy, it's kinda worrying me **a lot**! And I don't even know what it is yet. Could it be worse than Venom?_

Peter looked at MJ on the couch and remembered how Venom had been smart enough, on several occasions, to attack people close to Peter to get to Spider-man.

_I hope not._

Spider-man decided it was time to assess the situation; there was an armoured extraterrestrial running around New York following him, testing his skills and examining his every move.

"Oh god..."

Peter ran over to the balcony and slammed the glass doors shut. Mary Jane stirred slightly but didn't awake. This was good as Peter didn't want to worry her with the thought he had just, er…thought!

_What if it's watching right now? My spider-sense is picking up **something**…but what!_

Sure enough, his head began to tingle when he looked out of the window. There was something across the street looking toward the apartment, but Peter couldn't make out what it was. "I might not be able to see it, but Spider-man can get close enough. Just need to make the place 'bad guy proof'…"

A few splats of webbing here and there and the apartment's window borders and skylight were blocked by ultra-strong, ultra-sticky fluid. Peter left the front door unblocked in case of emergency; or if MJ just had to go out at some point.

Satisfied with his security procedures, Spider-man removed his costume from the washing machine and began to unbutton his shirt.

ACROSS THE STREET, minutes later…

Spider-man couldn't understand it; his spider-sense was still tingling, but he still couldn't find what was setting it off. Could it be the alien? Was it Venom? Was it something else? All these questions will be answered in the next exciting instalment of…oh wait, sorry! Moving on.

So, he fired one webline toward the top of the building and used it to swing up there. Perching on the corner of rooftop, he overlooked his city, his playground. The sight from here was breathtaking; it was one of the reasons he had agreed to buy that particular apartment. He liked to visit this spot to think, which was often.

No sooner had he settled, than his spider-sense buzzed heavily and he whizzed round to see **todays** stalker.

Felicia Hardy, The Black Cat, stood there, her long white/blond hair blowing in the warm breeze. It came as a bit of a shock to Spidey, as he had never seen her out and about in the day before. But, she was a welcome sight; at least she wasn't an alien bounty hunter or a symbiotic psycho.

"Morning." She smiled, also pleased to see him. It proved to cheer her up quite a bit, she still fancied him slightly.

"Who put you out at this time? Aren't you meant to be napping on a wall in someone's back yard?"

She grinned. "Come to think of it, why aren't **you** in some old ladies bathtub, fallin' down the sink?" To Peter, she looked amazing. It seemed that her costume had undergone a redesign. She wore a short tank top-like top with gloves that reached all the way up to below her shoulders. She had hot pant-like shorts on with thigh-high boots. Her belly was completely bare.

"So you're going for the revealing look to, eh? It seems to be the style with the women in my life at the moment."

"It's our choice, it's not like we're characters in some fan fiction written by a horny teenager!"

"No, you're right! Heh!" There was a pause. "So, what brings you out this time o' day? You're normally a night time operator."

"Well…" She paused for a moment before picking up where she left off. "I think there's somebody following you. You and MJ, I mean. Venom as well, but I'm not sure. All I know is it's carrying some serious hardware, better than my stuff."

"Our survey says…Dingdingding! We have a wiener! Yeah, I met the thing last night, it's some kinda hunter. It's been tracking me for a couple a days. What do you know about it?"

Black Cat tried to remember. "Okay, it had a scan, or something…yeah, that's it! It has one of them thermo-scans, the ones that see heat patterns. It's built into its helmet. Well, according to my CCTV analysis. And it has blades on its arm."

"Yeah, I got a little to close to them for comfort. Heat vision, eh? So, it looks for peoples heat signatures. That'll be easy in this weather-everyone's scorching! Do you know where it is now?"

Cat began to look worried. "I think it's around here somewhere. That's why I'm here; to warn you." Upon finishing her sentence, her gaze rushed to somewhere across the street. "It's here! Look, OVER THERE!"

Too late. By the time Spider-man had turned around, the creature had leapt from its perch across the street and landed on him with the strength of a piano being dropped off the Eiffel Tower, only less musical.

Spidey curled his legs up to his chest and kicked the alien off of him, knocking it to the other side of the rooftop. Before it had time to land, he hit it with a webline and yanked it toward Black Cat, who scissor kicked it in the mush. She continued to pound the creature, which refused to retaliate. It just slowly stood up, towered over her at full height and stared at her until she was too tired to continue hitting it.

Realizing that her attacks were not harming the creature, and that her arms were beginning to hurt, Cat stopped and looked it in the eyes. Big mistake.

Withdrawing its fist only to launch it forward again at full force, the creature whacked Cat far enough for her to fall off the building. Spider-sense sending a mini explosion coursing to his brain, instincts took over as Spider-man followed her, diving off the building.

Ahead of him, or rather, below him, Black Cat was frantically looking for something to grab hold of, and in midair, that ain't easy. Shooting a webline around her waist, he yanked the burglar towards him and held onto her tightly. Now that she was safely in his arms, Spidey was able to spin around so that she was facing upward.

He aimed his wrist toward the rooftop again and fired a strand to break their fall. Unfortunately, the creature was ready for this eventuality. As the webline hit the roof, the alien brought its heavy wrist blades down upon it, severing it at the end.

With no time to aim for another try, Spider-man decided that he would take the impact of the drop to protect Black Cat. Looking down, he saw that there were at least seven more storeys to go._ Seven isn't that much a drop is it?_

Oh yes it is.

The newsstand didn't stand a chance. Within seconds, the blue and red flash that was Spider-man had caused it to cave in by landing on the roof. Black Cat fell out of his arms and landed nearby, completely winded.

Spidey looked up from the rubble of Mars bars and issues of Playboy that he had landed in to see the creature take a great leap off of the rooftop. The landing caused the ground itself to tremble slightly, a small earthquake hitting the one street alone. Spidey's vision was blurred, but he could tell that it was getting closer; its footsteps shook the earth.

Looming over him, the creature shot a three-point beam from its helmet and aimed it at Spidey's chest. It was a laser sight for the huge plasmacaster that was raising itself upward from behind the creatures back, ready to fire.

"Oh, crud…"


	8. Chapter 7:The ways of the warrior

CHAPTER 7

_And to think, yesterday I was worried about how much paperwork I was gonna get…_

The creature loomed over Spider-man, its face unreadable behind that cold, metal mask. Spidey could have sworn that, behind it, the alien was grinning ear to ear. If it had ears.

The red specks of light from the helmet's laser target moved up Spidey's chest, passing the spider on his costume, and halted between his mirrored-white eyes. The webslinger couldn't see it, but he knew it was there; the three red arrows of the target were hot against the bridge of his nose, his mucus turned to jelly. But you didn't wanna know that, did you. You don't pay me to write tasteful stories; in fact, you don't pay me at all! So, ha!

Ahem, sorry…

Trapped under the pile of newspapers and chocolaty-goodness, Spider-man could not move away from the large gun that was rising from the creature's 'backpack'; his spider-sense was going into overdrive again, he knew the end would be soon.

Suddenly, the buzzing in his head stopped. _What? B-but he's about to kill me, isn't he?_ Spidey couldn't understand it. If he was about to die then why weren't his senses exploding?

Then it became clear. The cannon on the alien's shoulder disappeared behind the armour again as the creature held out its hand to Spidey. _Wha? _thought Spider-man. _Why the hell is it trying to help me up?_ He considered the gesture for a moment before coming to a decision; _my spider-sense tells me that it isn't dangerous. I still don't understand why it's doing this, though…_

Spidey lifted his gloved hand to the creature and it grasped it, yanking him to a standing position. Spider-man brushed some dust and Twinky wrappers off of himself as he rose, still staring at that mask. The creature may have been humanoid, but Spidey was sure that the mask hid something otherworldly.

"Er, thanks big guy", Spidey began, "you stopped my threads getting dirty, and Dr Pepper is murder to get out of spande-er, I mean, er…well, it doesn't matter. So, is this it? Are we finished now, coz I kinda wanna get back to my girl, I believe you've met her? She was the one gettin' snug with a 'squid' last night, the redhead. Beauty ain't she-"

Fists are a great accessory. For instance, they can be used for multiple things. In a tantrum, one can bang one's fists on the ground until those around notice and attempt to get to the bottom of one's problem. They can be used in boxing matches, as apposed to feet, which is cheating. You can hit the top of a television set with a fist when the signal is less than satisfactory in a feeble attempt to bring the picture to a clearer setting, and fists can also be used as an excuse to do a small Lemony Snicket-type speech about fists in a story by a sad teenager with nothing but y-fronts on. The most popular use for a fist is to shut someone up and knock them back into reality. That's what the alien intended to do.

The punch sent by the creature sent Spider-man from the remains of one newsstand to another, which became 'remains' on contact.

_So it still wants to fight? Why didn't it just kill me while I was down? Unless…_

Spider-man turned towards Black Cat. She was still lying on the floor and unmoving, but Spidey could see that she was breathing. She was dazed, but awake. He ran over to her and whispered in her ear. "Don't move; pretend to be too weak to fight."

"I am…" she mumbled, and rested her head upon the ground. Spidey turned to look at the alien; it was currently charging toward him, that big ol' fist prepared for another go at cracking the spider's skull. But Peter was prepared. He knew exactly what to do.

"Argh!" Spidey clutched his stomach in a fit of pain; or so everyone thought. He held onto his gut tightly and, falling to the floor, began taking shorter, gasping breaths. Rocking back and forth, legs twitching in 'agony', Spider-man looked like he had been poisoned by a killer Snickers, his insides infected by putrid nutty-chocolate.

_I sure hope this works_ thought Peter.

It did.

The creature bought this demonstration of weakness and ceased its attack, stopping to look at his injured prey. After a few moments of staring at the red and blue one, it turned to walk away.

Spider-man mentally rejoiced; _yes! Just as I thought, it only attacks opponents that are capable of fighting back! That's why it went after me instead of Cat-she was too weak at the time to fight it. Now I just have to wait for it to be out of sight and I can get back up._

The creature suddenly halted as though it had heard Spidey's thoughts. Turning, its laser shot once again from its mask, scanning Spider-man's midsection.

It became clear to the creature that the superhero had been pretending. There was no heat loss, blood or signs of a viral infection. The prey could still protect itself. The wrist blades shot from the creature's wrist gauntlet as Spider-man realised that he was busted. He let go of his stomach and slowly stood up.

"Heh-heh, yeah, about that 'argh' thing just then, it wasn't so much a 'argh, I'm in great pain' but, er…more of a 'argh, there you are' argh, ya see, so I wasn't tryin' trick you or nothing b-because you seem like a smart guy-or girl! I mean, I dunno, but you look more like a man…"

Spidey could not finish his sentence. The power house of tough extraterrestrial stood before him, blades raised and ready to strike the webbed-wonder's head in two.

Like a sixteen-ton weight in a Monty Python sketch, the blades lunged down at great speed. Spider-sense as a guide, Spider-man shot out his hands defensively, grabbing the warrior's wrist and pushing as hard as he could in an attempt to sever any chance of the knives touching his flesh.

The power of the creature's muscle became clear; Spidey was finding it immensely difficult to keep the sharp weapons from reaching him. His stance was weakening more and more until, eventually, his knees gave in, and he collapsed to a kneeling position, still trying to prevent the blade from getting to him.

His arms were about to go numb and he thought there could be no way out until he heard a sound from his left. A 'clang', then a 'whoosh' as the Black Cat swung in on her grapple-line, grabbing Spider-man and landing on a nearby rooftop.

With the webhead in her arms, she ran to the other side of the building and climbed down the fire escape. When they were out of sight, she lay him down and gave a weak smile.

"For a scrawny guy, you're heavy."

From the other side of the building they heard an unearthly roar from the alien, a few screams and then a thud.

"Keep still" said Cat, looking up. A second later they saw the creature leap over their heads, onto the next roof, then the next. "It thinks we ran off that way", Cat explained, "which gives us time to head the opposite way and to my apartment. It looks you've pulled few muscles, they'll need rest."

She glanced at him, expecting to see a hint of rebellion, but non came. Spidey was already unconscious.

"Great," said Cat, "now I've gotta carry you all the way home."


	9. Chapter 8:That name game

Chapter 8

SEVERAL MINUTES BEFORE

_Where am I? My-my head feels like…like…oh god, where is it? Where are you!_

Eddie Brock had lost track of everything from the past few hours. His memory just wouldn't let him remember the events of the night before. _Did I get drunk or…wait, it's coming back…_

Bit by bit, it came back to him. He had taken Mary Jane to the rooftop, Spider-man had followed, and then there was something…a knight or something. No, no, an alien thing. It attacked Spider then it…it…

_Oh god, it took us, it took my other half' _Eddie thought, the realisation of the key to his memory loss a shock; part of him had been stolen, not all of him, but enough to make him give back his hostage and blackout. And now here he was, without his symbiote, in an alley by…by…_Where am I?_

DAILY BUGLE BUILDING, JAMESON'S OFFICE, 3:30pm

"'Extraterrestrial Terrorist Wreaks Havoc!' Whadda you think?" J. Jonah Jameson stood before his audience, testing his headline ideas for the evening edition of the Daily Bugle.

"Er, I'm afraid we've already used that one" said Ben Urich, unaware of how to say to his boss that he was becoming forgetful without being fired. Luckily, it worked; he only got an angry glare from Jonah before the publisher blurted out his next idea.

"'Little Green Man Makes Message of Murder!'"

"But Jonah, it hasn't killed anyone. All it's done is attack Spider-man-" Joe 'Robbie' Robertson wished he hadn't opened his mouth. Any mention of the wall crawler in front of Jonah would surely result in-

"They were probably working together!"

There it was, the response he had been expecting. "Besides, it's not little. Reports confirmed that it was up to seven feet tall, if not more. And it was hunting Spider-man, not helping him. Nor was Spider-man helping it."

"So it's a hunter, eh?" Jameson put all of his brain power into thinking of a name based on the word 'hunter'. It didn't take long. "How about 'the Hunter'?"

Betty Brant opened her mouth to reply, but Jameson already knew what she was going to say. "No, people will confuse it and Kraven. Are you sure it wasn't Kraven?"

Robbie checked the interview reports. "They said 'tall, armour plated, blades-"

"Do any mention a crappy moustache?"

"Er…no" replied Robbie, wondering how Jameson could criticise the villain for his facial hair with that Hitler-wanabe on his top lip. "In fact, it says it wore a mask or a helmet or something."

"Be more specific!" barked the flat-topped tyrant.

"That's what it says; 'It wore a mask or helmet or something.'"

Jameson mumbled something about the public not giving decent interviews like they used to before announcing his next idea. "'The Bug Catcher'-no, too corny… 'The Spider Slay-'taken…"

He paced up and down his office for more than a minute, mumbling. None of his present employees dared help him; last time someone did that, they were on 'Lizard-spotting-duty' for a month. Crawling through the sewers, looking for a lizard in a lab coat was not an interesting career move from their point of view.

Suddenly, J. Jonah Jameson spun around to face his workers, a great big, sinister grin across his Adolf-ish features.

"I've got it!"

EARLIER THAT DAY…

Eddie had been searching for hours before he finally found his symbiote in Central Park. For some reason, it was lay on the ground in an open space, feeling the surface, then moving a little further onward.

They immediately joined, concealed by trees. It was a wonderful feeling, Eddie thought, that he could now grieve with his other half over their loss, once they realised what it was. Slowly, it came to them both as they shared memories.

MEANWHILE, ABOVE VENOM, IN THE SHIP

The creatures were becoming uneasy.

Their prize was changing. They didn't know what caused it; perhaps it was the Venom creature lurking near their ship, a call for help.

All they new was that their symbiote, once a pool of pure blackness, had slowly turned a dark shade of blood red…


	10. Chapter 9:The proposition

CHAPTER 9

PARKER APARTEMENT, 4:30pm

Mary Jane was just coming around. Her head felt like a box of hot frogs (does anyone understand what this means? Anyone? Ah, well…) and her body felt like it had been given a hug by an affectionate anaconda.

She pulled the blanket from around her and noticed that she was still dressed in her, erm…y'know, that dress she wore in chapters three, four and five. And six. She was still wearing it in chapters seven and eight, but she wasn't in those chapters. Besides, she was under a blanket then. So there! Ha! Ahem…

Examining her yet-again bare feet, and planning a shoe shopping trip, MJ stood up to see Peter on the other side of the room, driving an armchair, armed with a newspaper. Not literally, it's an expression. I mean, have you ever heard of someone driving a piece of furniture, harming people with the day's news? You have! Aw, nuts!

Stepping closer, she noticed an expression of extreme concentration and thought mask Peter's face; a nice change from the red, white and black one he usually wore. But this face meant that something was up, and that was never a good sign.

The paper was the afternoon's addition of the Daily Bugle and, for once, the picture on the front was not of Spider-man; in fact it wasn't even a photo.

There was a pencil-drawn picture of a three-eyed alien covered in armour and netting, posed in mid-roar. The crude sketch was coupled with a rather large headline below it that read:

ALIEN 'PREDATOR' STALKS PREY IN NEW YORK

Spider-man's new partner wreaks havoc.

The subtitle was typical of the writer of the column; Mary Jane knew that it was J. Jonah Jameson without even reading it. She also then realised why Peter was pssd (I don't approve of language in a K+. Actually I do, but my little brother's watching me type and, for all I know, my mum's on the net reading this, so there you go) and set about to take his mind off of the story.

"Erm, Pete…you okay?"

"Mm? Oh, hi MJ. D'you sleep okay?"

"You tell me, I don't remember anything except tentacles and Venom, so I must have been asleep since then." He gave her a small grin, but continued to stare at the article in the paper. "So, er, I got this offer for a movie last night. 'The Amazing Lobsterman' or something-"

"It's unfair!" Peter suddenly cried. "I go out to check the scene, and I get attacked. I protect people from this 'Predator' thing and **I** get blamed for what happened today! Not only that, but I get majorly beat up!"

A thought crossed MJ's mind; "How did…how did you get back if you were too beat?"

_Don't mention Black Cat, don't mention Black Cat, dontmentionblackcat! _Peter thought. He was unsure how MJ would react if he told her that an 'ex-squeeze' had a) taken him to her apartment to patch him up and b) had been in the room they were in right now. Especially the 'patch him up' bit; MJ couldn't stand another woman's hands on her man, spider or otherwise.

"I…caught a cab."

"In your costume?"

"Wha? Heck, no, I had enough energy to get changed, MJ. I wasn't that weak!"

"Then why were you complaining about it? And what have you done about recovering-have you got any scars that need the 'MJ-touch'?" Mary Jane paid attention for evidence of any sore-spots.

"No, I'm okay, promise-ow!" As Peter sat up to look at her, he jerked forward slightly, but noticeably, and clutched his stomach in pain.

"Oh my god, are you okay!" said MJ as she leapt forward to comfort her husband. "Lemme see!"

"No, it's okay, really. I'm fine" Peter insisted. As he sat back in his chair, he made sure to pull his shirt down at the back, and Mary Jane noticed a bandaged wrapped around his waist, fastened at the back with tape.

_How the hell could he reach to fasten it like that? He's had help, I know that much,_ thought MJ, _but who would Spider-man ask for help? Wait a min-no, it couldn't be. Could it…?_

She put the thought aside for a moment to ask Peter a question; "Hey Pete, d'ya wanna go and see a movie or something coz you look like you could do with a bit of fun?"

After several moments of pure silence, Peter Parker answered. "Yeah, 'k. I'd like that, sure, let's go!"

"Hey. Lemme get changed first; I'm not going in this gear, it's so yesterday! Literally! I'll go put a t-shirt and jeans on, probably…but I better have a shower first; symbiote stinks like hell!"

As MJ made her way to the bathroom, not forgetting to look all around the furniture and down the drain for any snake-like tendrils o' terror that may try and grab her, she glanced back at Peter to see him deep in thought again. She shrugged; she had tried to occupy his thoughts with something other than his job, but now that was all she could think of as well.

It seemed like a black cat was continuously crossing their path…

SPEAKING OF BLACK CATS…

Black Cat had spent the afternoon searching for the 'Predator' that was after her boyfrie-sorry, her 'co-worker'. Normally she would have been able to find it on any of the thirty motion-trackers she had placed around this area of the city, but it seemed that the creature had moved on.

She sat down on the ledge of a building rooftop and sighed. Apart from the Predator attack, that morning had been the best in a while; she got to touch her Spider-man. Touch him! Not the suit, but the flesh!

Sometimes she wished that things hadn't worked out between the spider and Mary Jane Watson. _What did she see in him anyway? They don't have as much in common as we do. I could give him thrills equal to his own! We could share our job, lookout for each other. I mean, what has she got that I don't!_

Then it hit her: Peter Parker. Mary Jane was in love with the man behind the mask, the guy behind the scenes. The one in control. But Cat only felt for Spidey, not the anti-thrill-ride that was photographer Peter Parker. Maybe if she had a shot at Spider-man, she'd have to accept Peter at the same time. They couldn't be too different, could they?

Felicia was woken from her thought-trance by a long, slimy tentacle that wrapped itself around her ankle and held her in mid air.

"What the hell? Hey, let go of me, you crazy-" Cat discontinued her complaint when her eyes settled on her attacker. White eyes wide with psychotic hunger, teeth large and shark-like in a huge grin, it became clear to Black Cat that Venom had a reason for ambushing her.

"Hello baby! How've you been?"

"Get off o' me, slimeball!"

"We're fine, thank you. We suppose you're wondering why we're here? We have a favour to ask of you."

"Yeah, like I'd help **you**! Get real, Venom."

"You will help us, meat!"

"Or what?"

It was hard to tell since she was upside down, but Cat could've sworn that she saw Venom's grin grow by a good few inches. "We hoped you'd say that…"

Several large tendrils extended from Venom's back and coiled around Cat's waist and hips, pushing her forward over the ledge of the building. "If you don't give us what we need-"

The coils loosened except for the one around Felicia's ankle and she slipped slightly, getting a good view of the several hundred feet drop below her. "-we'll see if you really do land on your feet."

Cat sighed again and felt more tendrils coil around her upper body and neck. She had no choice. "Okay, what do you need?"


	11. Chapter 10:The battle part 1

CHAPTER 10

LATER THAT NIGHT…

"You found it once, you can find it again, witch!" barked Venom at his 'catch of the day'. He had taken Black Cat back to the Hardy Penthouse to use the surveillance equipment.

No guesses as to why.

"Don't call me that, you big fat sack of crap!" Felicia yelled back, turning from her laptop screen. It was ridiculous, she thought, that she was a hostage in her own home. And to Venom! Spidey had outsmarted this guy plenty of times, why couldn't she?

Venom came up behind her and whispered to her through dirty-great-big clenched teeth. "You will help us or we'll squeeze you till you pop and eat out your brainsss…" The hissing effect Venom added to the end of his sentence caused Black Cat to shudder uncontrollably. She couldn't help it, this guy creeped her out. His tongue swept past her face and licked her cheek like a dog lapping up water. She jerked to the side to avoid it and caught sight of its length. It was at least fifty centimetres long, pink and covered in a greenish slime. The look of disgust on Cat's face said it all.

"Actually, we might do that anyway…if you attempt to do anything **but** help us…" The symbiotic psycho gave her a huge grin and licked the edges of his razor-sharp teeth in eagerness of his upcoming feast.

"Yeah, like I'd let you do that, jackass…" Cat murmured, unaware that Venom could hear every word she was saying.

"And there's the something else!" Venom cried and he lunged toward Felicia, grabbing hand at the ready. His fingers extended into more snake-like tendrils and coiled around Black Cat's waist and arms, lifting her from her chair.

Bringing her closer to him, the lethal protector told his meal "We're gonna enjoy thisss" before wrapping his tongue once around her neck, crushing her body as he did so. The tip of Venom's tongue coiled once more around Felicia's neck before moving to her ear, ready to enter the 'all-you-can-eat-brain-buffet' part of the meal. The fear in Felicia's mind slowly began to fade to a trance of tranquillity as the air in her lungs was increasingly being squeezed from her body.

Just before she lost consciousness, a banshee-like "BEEEEEEEEEEP" erupted from the computer's speakers, and Venom turned to see what the noise was indicating.

The picture on the screen caused him to unravel his tentacles from around Black Cat and drop her in shock. And no, before you ask, his tongue was not still around her neck because then he'd have to drag her across the floor to get to the screen, wouldn't he. His tongue's not as long as it is on the cover of Venom #1, pencilled by Francisco Herrera, y'know!

Sorry, I did the geek thing there, didn't I? On with the show…

On the laptop screen was a CCTV image from the roof of the building that they were in. _Strange_, thought Venom, _cat burglars don't normally wear alien armour and have spears. We thinks that there's the tasty snack that we have been looking for…_

Venom turned to the motionless body of Felicia Hardy and knelt down beside her. She was still breathing, but clearly unconscious. "Looks like your equipment helped us find the 'Predator' after all, miss kitty-kat…we've got a score to settle with that alien jerk, but when we're finished," he dog-licked her check again but she didn't stir, "we'll be sure to finish our sssnack…"

The Symbiote creature leapt backward and through the nearest window. Crawling up the outside wall to the roof, Venom spotted the Predator sneaking around on the opposite side of the ledge.

Like a lion on the prowl, Venom charged at the Predator, only to find that it was aware of his presence. In mid jump, Venom was struck in the chest by an electronic discus. Like an alien Frisbee o' death, it sliced through the layer of symbiote and cut Brock with a deep gash in his belly.

Venom went hurtling backwards, and fell one floor into Felicia's rooftop garden. It was as big as an eighth of Central Park, filled with the prettiest rose bushes and blooming cherry trees.

The image of wonder was ruined by Venom landing in a patch of petunias, blood trailing behind him from his wound.

The Predator leapt from the floor above and, with a mighty roar, loomed over his opponent. Venom glanced up at him and smirked. Using the combined healing abilities of Eddie Brock and the alien Symbiote, Venom caused the gash to vanish in seconds, fully healed.

"We're not **that **easy, butt-brain! You'll have to do better than a spinning disc!" Venom beamed, proud in the knowledge that if this was the most damage the alien could dish out, then it was clear who would win.

Poor Venom, the naïve moron…

The Predator ran at his prey, spear in hand, ready to strike. "Didn't ya hear us, bub? We don't go down that ea-"

Their sentence was cut short by the creature's blow, as the Predator had used the spear to hoist himself upwards by pushing it into the ground, landing with a powerful kick on top of Venom's head. The force of the attack stunned Venom and he hit the ground hard.

As the Predator regained his balance, Venom rose to his feet and shot a webline from his wrist. It connected with the Predator's mask, and Venom yanked as hard as he could. The alien shot forward, mask askew, and its face met Venom's fist with great force. Stumbling backward, the creature's mask fell to the side as it clutched its face in agony.

Venom casually strolled over to the mask, and stood on it as hard as he could. It took some muscle, and a little extra body weight but, eventually, the metallic helmet shattered into five pieces.

This was the first of Venom's many mistakes this battle.

The creature looked up in shock, as if an alarm bell had gone of in his head, and he stared with astonishment at his ex-mask before glaring with pure hatred at Venom. Venom stared back at the Predator's face in repulsion.

Its forehead was twice the size of a normal human's and stretched from above the alien's eyes to the back of its head, a strange scar in the centre, dreadlocks hanging all around the edge of it. A bunch of snout-like wrinkles were perched between its sunken eyes of yellow and red. Spots covered its face, the occasional black 'hair' sprouting from its reptilian pores. But the most striking facial feature was the Predators mouth. The bottom and top jaws were filled with small-but-deadly teeth, but at each corner of its mouth was a pincer-like mandible, if that's the right word. These could be compared to a bug, but they were totally unique. Overall, this thing was hideous.

Venom summed up the creatures look in a single insult. Turning to the Predator, he said "You are on ugly motherf-"

This was Venom's second mistake. The enraged creature had leapt upward and planted its fist in Venom's face, its wrist blades extending on the opposite hand, which slashed at Venom a second later.

The Predators left hand grasped Venom's neck and swung him into a tree trunk. Racing over, the alien head butted our antihero in the jaw and elbowed him in the eye. Pain seared through the symbiotes body, its healing factor unable to keep up with this whirlwind of hurt.

More punches followed, blow after blow causing Venom to cough up more and more blood. Eventually, the Predator paused and gave the Predator equivalent of a triumphant grin to Venom. It fixed him with its unforgiving stare once more and spoke with a croaky voice that sounded like Venom's own vocals with more of a hissing to them.

"Rarrr…we're not that easy, butt-brain!"

"Well let's make it hard, then!" announced a voice from behind the Predator, and it turned to face the intruder.


	12. Chapter 11:The battle part 2

CHAPTER 11

FELICIA HARDY'S PENTHOUSE, FIVE MINUTES AGO

_That was great_, thought Spider-man, as he landed with a gentle 'thud' on the wall outside Felicia's bedroom on the top floor. _It's rare for me and Mary Jane to bond like that, have a normal day out. Watch a film, eat some popcorn, play tonsil hockey on the back row seats, go home and…ha ha…_

Peter quickly put the happy memories to the back of his head and focused on the task at hand; he had to thank Felicia for her help and healing, but explain that nothing could happen between them because he was happy with MJ and didn't want to lose that relationship.

Then why did he feel unsure about that? What he had for Felicia was physical, surely? Or was there more to it…?

Suddenly, there came a loud 'BEEEEEP' noise from inside Felicia's room, and Spidey scuttled to the window to see what the matter was. At first it looked like someone was crushing her, then the attacker came near to her, before moving toward the window.

Spider-man got in just I time to see the attacker leap through the glass. He lay on top of Felicia to stop any shards hitting her and noticed that she was in her Black Cat costume. Is that why she was attacked; an enemy had come to kill Cat, not Felicia Hardy?

As he started to get off of her, Cat awoke with a start. The level of embarrassment in Peter's mind reached its peak as Black Cat stared up at her dream man. She was secretly over the moon, but resisted the urge to reveal that fact. After a moments silence, Felicia spoke.

"Er…hi."

"Yeah, er…hi…" Peter replied sheepishly.

"D'you…d'you mind getting off of me? Coz, er…"

"Oh! Yeah, yeah…sure."

There was a pause.

"Er, Spidey…"

"Oh, sorry!" Peter picked himself up off of Felicia and stood up straight, trying to act as if nothing had happened. As Black Cat rose, she noticed that the red part of Spider-man's mask had got redder.

"So, what's happened? Who was that?" asked Spidey.

Black Cat could only just think straight; the loss of air from the tentacles crush on her had caused her mind to go all woozy. "Er, oh god…it was Venom. He came to use my surveillance gear to find the Predator and I called him a sack of crap…he did a python hug on me and he was…he…"

Her face became a portrait of horror as she recalled what Venom had planned for her. The feel of his tongue around her neck and in her ear was still there in her head; she shivered suddenly. "What?" Peter asked, "What did he do?"

"He…my brai-…he was gonna…eat…" She burst into tears. The fear of his return caused her to panic and cry. If the experience hadn't been bad enough, she would have to go through it again.

'_We'll be sure to finish our sssnack…'_

"When I find him I'm going to kick his nuts so hard that his head falls off!" Spider-man exclaimed. Suddenly, there came a 'THUD' from outside in the garden area and Spidey heard the hiss of Venom enter through the broken window.

"Now's your chance; he's still h-here…" Black Cat whimpered and sat on her bed, knees under her chin, rocking gently. Spider-man realized that it would be better if she was out of harm's way.

"Look," he said to Felicia, "why don't you go to the lounge and get in a big armchair by the fire, or something. Y'know, have some wine, get drunk…forget about Venom. I'll make sure he's gone in the next five minutes."

"Okay." Felicia wiped her eyes, got off the bed and made her way to the door. Before she shut it behind her, however, she re-entered the room. "Pe-…Spider-man?"

"Yes?"

"He…he said that, when he's finished, he'll come back for me and…I…I'm scared." She was glad to get it off her chest, and gave a short sigh of relief.

"Then I'll make sure that I'm the one that finishes." said Peter confidently, determined to keep his friend happy. She forced herself to smile, but the terror shone through all the while. She left the room and shut the door.

_She doesn't realise, does she? I mean it. This is the end for Venom. He's attacked Mary Jane and Felicia in one day. But that's one day too much. He's going down._

Spider-man leapt out of the window hole and scaled the wall up to the roof. From here, he got the best seat in the house. The Predator was in the garden, beating the crap out of Venom, who wasn't putting up much of a fight, probably because he was pretty beat up as it was.

The alien hurled Venom into a tree trunk, hit him a few times, then stood before the villain and said, in its strange Venom-like voice, "Rarrr…we're not that easy, butt-brain!"

Spidey couldn't help but intervene. "Well let's make it hard, then!" he yelled at the creature, and it turned to look at him.

Its face was gross. Seriously gross. From the beady little eyes to the pincer-mouth, this thing was hideous. Spidey used this as an excuse for a little insult.

"Hey, Tim Burton called. It seems that Jack Skellington has voted you prettiest freak in all of Halloween Town!"

The creature's reply was a feral one; it simply let out a tremendous roar and, using a control panel on its left wrist, raised the cannon on its back and fired at the bug.

Thanks to his spider sense, Spider-man was expecting this to happen, and dodged the attack easily. Unfortunately, the Predator had planned this to happen.

The Smartdisc (killer Frisbee) sliced the side of Spidey's arm enough to stop him from landing on all fours. Instead, he collapsed and held his arm in pain; the cut was deep.

_Why the hell do I get involved in these things! Argh!_

Venom saw this distraction as the perfect opportunity to strike. Pulling both of his legs up to his chin, he brought them forward at the same time with the force of the Juggernaut heading to the toilet after too much chilli. Colliding with Predator's stomach, the kick caused the alien to slam into the tree opposite, knocking it over. The tree came down upon the nearest apartment window and it shattered into a million pieces, each as big as a video cassette. Well, it was a big window.

Several shards found their way to parts of the Predator that were not armour protected. Bright green blood oozed out of the window wounds and the alien whimpered in pain.

It was then that Venom picked up a shard and slammed it into the Predator's arm. The alien let out a nightmarish shriek of agony so loud it could be heard far away in space.

It huddled over for a second, trying desperately to recover from the pain, but to no avail. For a moment it hunched, twitching uncontrollably. Then, in one swift motion, it pulled the shard from its arm, blood flowing in gallons, and dug it into Venom's hand.

The scream that came from the lethal protector's mouth was an echo of the one that had come from the Predator several seconds before. It was cut short, however, as the symbiote surrounding Eddie Brocks palm smashed the glass and pushed it away from his fingers.

"That's it. That is IT!" Venom roared as he lifted the creature up by the neck, much to its surprise, and hurled it over the roof.

Spidey acted as fast as he could. Crawling to the edge of the rooftop, he shot a webline with his uninjured arm. It stuck to the Predator's ankle and held fast.

Now, here was the problem.

Spider-man was struggling to keep hold of the Predator (the weight was too much for one arm to cope with), but now Venom was creeping up behind him.

"Drop it, Parker. We've won; it is time for it to die!"

"No!" Spidey replied, "No one deserves to die but you! You're the one who's done more damage than this Star Trek reject!"

"If you're talking about my methods…that's my own business. This creature is **our** business!"

Spider-man did not move. This creature did what it was doing for an unknown reason, what was to say that it wasn't going to turn out good? But Venom, he did what he felt like, and it would go on forever if Spider-man didn't stop him.

_What the hell do I do?_

"Playtime's over!" Venom announced, and charged at Spidey, knocking him and the Predator off of the roof.

The several hundred feet were no match for Spider-man; injured or not.

One webline secured a safe landing for our hero, but the Predator was not so fortunate. It fell all the way, and out of sight. Police witness reports would later say that it hit the ground and just vanished into thin air. A trail of its blood was left on the floor, but it was supposedly spread as the Predator fell. A cry of pain and anger was heard as it fell, and it echoed about the street for some minutes after its disappearance.

This was the last New York City would see of the Predator.

For now.


	13. Interlude

Well, didn't think that I was gonna leave it there, did ya?

INTERLUDE

The Elders were furious.

Their warrior had returned to them empty handed. Not only that, but it had also broken some key rules of the hunt.

Firstly, it had changed its target without informing the Elders first. This was punishable by banishment from the alien's clan for fifty earth years, and was a serious dent in that hunter's reputation. But because the rule had been broken on a mission as crucial and new as this, the time given could be up to seventy five years.

Secondly, it was willing to harm an innocent person, one unable to fight back. By this, it meant Spider-man. From previous battles with the human, it had appeared to the Predator that the human known as the Spider-man was too easier target and unable to keep up with the Predator. That is why it switched to Venom for a target. So when it had attacked Spidey on the roof at Felicia's, it had attacked an unworthy opponent. This had knocked the sentence up to one hundred earth years.

And, finally, it had let itself get seen by a large number of people. Earlier that day, when it had attacked Spider-man and the new human, Black Cat, it had been seen by several hundred witnesses, and was mentioned in news reports, on television, and had been sketched for newspapers all over New York, all of which had been accurate, except one paper called The Daily Bugle. Luckily, it had remembered to cloak that night, as the injured Predator had made its way back to its ship, but the first sighting was enough to expose it to the whole city.

The Predator had been uncovered. It had been recorded in the pages of news history, forever to be remembered.

The punishment for this was clear; if a member of the clan had been spotted by many, and had also disobeyed several other rules before, it was to be executed.

Immediately.

The Predator knew the procedure; it had seen the same thing happen to other members of its clan before. It knelt before the head of its clan, purred in hopeless apology, and removed its upper body armour and netting.

The Predator couldn't help feel that this was Venom's fault; if he hadn't shown up, the Predator would have continued to hunt Spider-man instead, thus only receiving banishment. Nothing but pure loathing for the symbiotic creature filled the Predator's veins as he realized that he would never be able to get his revenge and die with a sense of accomplishment, die a winner.

He was going to get that revenge. With the help of another.

The Carnage symbiote in the containment unit observed the Elder aiming his plasmacaster at the Predator and mutter a few word-like growls. But what was bothering the symbiote was the level of hatred oozing from the Predator, a hatred it shared with the creature.

It is unknown what motivated the symbiote to do what it did, but the two theories are this: the first suggests that the hatred the Predator shared for Venom inspired it to breakout of containment, whereas the second says that it had planned revenge on Venom already, and was executing its plan.

The glass-like containment tube that the Carnage symbiote was held in shattered into thousands of pieces with a great explosion of strength and power. Taking the Elders by surprise, the symbiote shot across the room and did the most unexpected thing imaginable.

Merging with the hunter, sharing thoughts of revenge, the duo brutally slaughtered every Elder on board the craft, leaving no one alive. The deaths were so gruesome that I cannot go into great detail; all I will say is that Chucky would be jealous of the creature's work.

A small explosion was later reported in Central Park, but it was said to have appeared from out of thin air, damaging nothing but the quiet of the area.

They were long gone by then, half way into the city. They were on the prowl, together, hunting their ultimate prey.

The Predator was back in New York City, and with a powerful new ally. And nothing or nobody could stop them now.

END INTERLUDE


	14. Chapter 12:The battle maybe won

Countdown to 'Carnage' begins now…

CHAPTER 12

"Do you think that your scanner can find out exactly what this thing does?"

Felicia was slowly lightening up. "I'm sure it's just a mask, coz I don't think it could fit a microwave oven in there…but I'll check anyway. Oh, and should I email the results to Reed, as well?"

Spider-man thought about it for a moment, then replied. "It'd be wise; that thing might not be dead, and if it comes back, having the Fantastic Four with us may be the best chance we have of winning. I mean, I couldn't keep up with it, and Veno-" Peter stopped mid sentence; Felicia had gave a quiet yelp of fear. _Brock must have scared her pretty bad, because Cat doesn't normally get jumpy around super villains_, thought Peter, _but I can't believe that he actually tried to eat her brain! I thought it was just an empty threat…_

When Spider-man had gone to confront Venom, Felicia had done what Spidey had suggested; she had got changed into a bathrobe (please, no references to horny teens and fan fiction stories. Chapter six has been and gone, people!), sat by the fire in one of ten living rooms, and opened up a six pack o' beer. She may have been rich, but she wasn't posh.

However, her nerves had not fully calmed. Venom was in her eyes, on her mind and skin; she still felt his tentacles throttling her as the tongue edged closer to a snack. She shivered violently every time his name was mentioned, and due to news coverage of the past few weeks, she looked permanently cold.

Peter saw the shiver and immediately changed the subject.

"Can you still scan it in pieces, because it's kinda hard to put back together…it's in so many pieces, after all?"

Cat forced a smile, the third this hour. "I'm sure I can figure it out." She paused to read something on the screen, and turned to Spider-man, a look of confusion masking her face. "What the hell do you think **that** means?" She pointed to a paragraph of extremely complicated scientific Mumbojumbo™. It only took Peter a few seconds to translate.

"D'you remember telling me about the helmet using thermal vision?" Cat nodded. "Well, it doesn't. It _enhances _it. The eyes of the mask help to make the Predator's near-thermal vision become full-thermal vision; it already sees that way, but blurred. If you were cold, or covered in something that gets in the way of body heat, then it wouldn't be able to see you properly."

Peter pondered his discovery for a minute before Felicia broke the silence. "Don't you mean that it _used_ to help its vision? I mean, it's gone, right?"

Cat's worry grew as Spidey paused, hesitant to answer.

"I…I don't think that it has gone. I'm not sure…there's no spider-sense warning or anything…it's just a feeling. That it's not over."

What's Venom up to, you say? Well…

MEANWHILE, ON THE ROOF

"Right, Miss Hardy", Venom muttered to themselves, "let us finish our businessssssss…….."

Crawling in through the broken window, they could feel Felicia's presence; she was on the floor below. A grin spread from one side of Venom's head to the other.

They were gonna enjoy this.

But what was this? There was someone else there, near by. Spider-man? Possibly.

Possibly not.

Whoever, or whatever, it was, it worried the symbiote out of them. And it was close, and getting closer. And closer.

The gash in the back of Venom's head appeared in less than a microsecond, splashing Eddie Brock's blood into his symbiotic armour and sending a chilling bolt of thunder through his spine as the Carnage symbiote took its first shot at revenge. It was back, and with a new host.

"What have you done? Our own offspring has joined our hate? How **dare **you betray us! You shall die!" Venom's fury knew no bounds, and they leapt at the monstrosity that stood before them.

Only to miss. A tendril shot from the creatures wrist, ensnared Venom's arm, and lifted him from the ground, then flinging him toward the floor, destroyed the only thing between them and our unsuspecting heroes.

And boy, where they surprised.

_Get ready for the final chapters of Venom versus Predator, and the end of my first fanfic. Please, tell me what you thought, what you'd like to see me write in the future, how to improve. INEED FEEDBACK, PEOPLE!_


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